Access to Interdisciplinary Information: Setting the Problem

Identifying and locating interdisciplinary literature, and ideas and information that reside in different disciplines, poses problems for researchers and students. Using electronic means of access, such as online indexes and abstracts and online library catalogs, has provided more flexibility and reduced the amount of time needed for the search process. But scholars continue to question the completeness of the resources for their interdisciplinary work. In part, the problems are due to structures of disciplinary literature and the various forms of access that support current academic and scholarly publications. Scholars can overcome some of the problems with flexible research approaches congruent with the available tools. More importantly, perhaps, groups of interdisciplinary researchers could initiate the development of a taxonomy and language specific to interdisciplinary study and teaching.